Nickelodeon Yearly Recap 1991
Fifteen
(SKIPPED AS I COULDN’T FIND ANY FULL EPISODES)
Welcome Freshmen
As you can tell from the title, the show is about a high school, primary focusing on freshmen students (although they would become sophomore in the final season). The first two seasons focused on various situations, akin a sketch show, and often had a theme to it (especially the first season). The final season changed into a sitcom format, akin Saved by the Bell. As it’s one of those shows that is only accessible to old recordings back in the days, I’ll have to rely on Dailymotion to watch this show. What did I think of Welcome Freshmen? I do not liked the show at all. Despite having a good run, I don’t blame its obscure status. It’s such a generic show with a generic school setting. It contained so much many cliches you seen in these type of shows. You have yourself an authority figure who is a freshman hater (and that’s his only punchline), and of course, the jocks. But the weird thing is that the main group of friends are surprisingly rude to each other. Other than the girls (when they’re together), they are constantly at each other’s throats for no real reason. If it wasn’t for that, the show would’ve been a lot more bearable AND memorable. It’s so forgettable that I don’t even remember the characters other than the smart boy. That’s how bad of a show it is when nearly all of the main characters are a bunch of unlikable jerks. This is one of those shows that gets worse every passing season. I didn’t find the first season that bad because all of the episodes followed a theme and every episode ended with the friends discussing what they learned. Admittedly, the sketches were slightly funnier. However, the quality of the sketches and the show itself started to dip by the next season that I have to drop after a few episodes. Every running gag like hating on freshman and picking on the smart boy became extremely stale and annoying fast. I try to stay patient when I watch bad shows, but it was the most I can endure. For the third season, I stopped after 10 episodes. And yes, if you’re wondering, the shift to the sitcom format did not help make the show better. It became even worse. Even with the main cast becoming sophomores, it’s the same old crap, without the sketches. You know, I find it sad that Welcome Freshmen is such a trainwreck because it had a bunch of creative writers who went on to work for various Nickelodeon shows, like Bob Mittenthal, Michael Rubiner, and Tim Hill. It said a lot that I find myself enjoying Hey Dude slightly more, but that’s not saying much. All in all, I don’t recommend this show whatsoever for all the flaws I mentioned. It’s proof that Nick in the 90s wasn’t without its duds.
(3/10)
Get the Picture
The first Nick game show of 1991 is all about images. Before Nick viewers knew him as the GUTS host, Mike O'Malley hosted this game show. It consists of two teams (orange and yellow), who are competing with each other to guess the right hidden pictures on a 16 square video wall. During the first season, kids are required to connect the dots, uncover Power Surges, engage in some physical activities (such as Toss Across, Jigsaw Puzzle) before heading to a bonus round. The second season changed all of its rules drastically. For example, it was now played for points rather than money. As it only aired new episodes throughout 1991, this game show wasn't as memorable as the others. I personally preferred the first season more only because it's more exciting. Mike was a good host, but you can tell he didn't really perfected his role until his next game show.
(7/10)
Clarissa Explains It All *
The show will has its own separate journal due to its importance.
(9/10)
The original Nicktoons *
They will have their own journal because of how impactful they were to the channel.
Salute Your Shorts
Remember when summer camp shows used to be fresh and original and didn't feel exploited? Well, back in the 90s, Nick used to have one of these shows. Salute Your Shorts take place at a fictional summer camp, Camp Anawanna (a play of "I don't want to"). It focuses on teenage campers as they try to get through summer by getting into crazy situations while dealing with their counselor (played by the late Kirk Bailey). The first season was more about the struggle between newcomer Michael Stein and camp bully Robert 'Bobby' Budnick as they try to win over the girls. By the second season, though, Michael was replaced by Ronald "Ronnie' Foster Pinsky, so the character dynamics changed somewhat. You know, after watching modern summer camp shows like Bunk'd and Summer Camp Island, they just feel hackneyed. When I decided to stream this show on Paramount+ last summer (despite missing some episodes), I was a little cautious, but since it's a classic show, I ended up enjoying it more than I expected. The characters had a better chemistry than the ones from Hey Dude and Welcome Freshmen. I mean, they’re still assholes to each other, but it’s not frustrating to watch because they have more friendly moments. And it worked, and it gave the show a good experience, something that the aforementioned shows failed to do. Every character is unique in their own ways instead of being copies of each other. The kids can be a bit of bad influences for the young viewers, but this is fictional. And the counselor do suffer through a lot throughout the show, which may be a tad hard to watch with his actor now decreased. Comedy isn’t the show’s strongest aspect and as I mentioned before, it’s the character interaction that made the show an enjoyable viewing. If you ask me, I liked this show and it’s pretty much Hey Dude and Welcome Freshmen done right. Maybe it’s no wonder 80s and 90s kids have more fond memories with this show, despite its shorter run.
(8/10)
What Would You Do?
As we all know, Double Dare was a huge success for Nickelodeon. So, it was only a matter of time before they decided to give the show's host (Marc Summers) another game show, called What Would You Do?, which aired from 1991-1993. This time, Summers is joined by Robin Marrella. The format for the show is a bit different this time, focusing on what the audience would do in a situation. After tallying the results, the outplay was shown. Segments included Anything You Can Do, WWYD medley, Wall O'Stuff. Other stuff featured in the show were musical pies, family challenges, pie-athons, and roving cameras. The cream pie was central to the show's premise and was often used as punishment. The show is alright, but it certainly does not beat Double Dare. You can tell it's a lot more comedic, as it involves more weirdness. It's also more interactive than the other game shows Nick has done so far. Not to mention, adults are more involved with this since the other game shows usually just had kids as contestants, so I'll give it some points for being different. Based from the first 9 episodes I saw through Dailymotion (the only way to watch a full episode of the show), the silly situations people have to get into include doing stunts, impersonating Elvis, driving a monster tuck, eating the worst pie, and feeding a tarantula. They were funny to watch, but they were definitely not fitting for game show format. Overall, while still a decent show, it’s not something that I rewatch, but I still appreciate it for trying something different.
(7/10)
Nick News (including new version)
Kids needed to stay alert on what's going on with the world. So Nick decided to produce a monthly news show. The viewers were introduced Nick News on January 1991, and the first episode was about the Middle East. Linda Ellerbee serves as the host of the show. Growing up, I never saw much of it because it always aired during Sunday night (the night before kids head back to school). I don’t recalled seeing commercials for it because it was a monthly show. This won’t be much of a review, but rather what I think about the show itself. It’s a miracle this show managed to last this long. Up until the 2020s, it was the longest running Nickelodeon show until SpongeBob obviously dethroned it (even though Nick News was already revived). The target demographic will find it boring, but let’s be honest. Since 9/11, America has been divided more than ever, and this bleed over to the cable news networks who thrive on biased reports to stay afloat. Yes I am talking about CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News, and other lesser news media like Newsmax and OANN. There’s no point watching them in 2023 nowadays, so younger people, I’d suggest to check out the revival of Nick News if you want a fair and balance report of the current events. Though I wish the current host wasn’t a younger version of Linda since she also has a pixie cut. In shorter words, if there’s nothing to watch on tv and you want to have a less cynical take on the news, I suggest this show instead of 24/7 news.
(6/10)
Are You Afraid of the Dark? *
Separate journal coming October 2024.
(9/10)
